Climbing
Climbing is a core mechanic in Dragon's Dogma. Description Climbing allows the Arisen and their Pawns to take on larger monsters. They may grab onto, climb up, and attack giant enemies, and get to otherwise unreachable weak points such as the eye of a Cyclops or the heart of a Drake. Stamina is the deciding factor on how long one can stay attached to an enemy as climbing uses stamina. When their stamina is fully depleted, the climber's grip is lost and they will fall. Stamina will be used up very rapidly if the monster attempts to shake off the climber. During such violent motions the climber can only cling, and will be temporarily unable to attack. Some creatures will grab a climber, smash them on the floor, or try other motions to dislodge them; colliding with structures when climbing will also cause loss of grip. Whilst supported from below, such as on the back of the Ur-Dragon or an Ox, stamina is not used, but it does not replenish either. Mounted combat Climbing Arisen and allies are restricted in the attacks they can perform: Dagger wielding combatants can carry out light and heavy attacks, whilst staff users are restricted to light attacks. The heavy attack Magick Billow can be used once, but the force of the blow will cause dismounting. Fighters and Warriors are also limited to light attacks. All mounted melee attacks from Sword, Daggers, Longswords and similar gain a +50% damage modifier when attacking the most dangerous foes (Drakes etc). Striders gain an additional damage boost of the around the same amount again under the same conditions. Generally, non-core skills can not be used whilst climbing, with a few exceptions: The dagger skills Scarlet Kisses, Hundred Kisses and Thousand Kisses can be used when mounted on a large creature, and are ideally suited for that purpose. Assassins also can use Gouge with a sword. The Magick Archer skill Immolation (and its variants) is very effective. The inclination Scather indirectly encourages climbing, as most larger dangerous monsters are climbable. "Jump climbing" is a popular sport, and for many vocations the quickest way to gain height on a creature. Whilst mounted, simply jump to dismount, and then when higher, grab again to begin climbing again. Environmental climbing Ledges of most large rock formations, walls, large scale wooden structures and so on can be grabbed onto with a jump and then scrambled up. Walking near a ledge or fall causes a hesitation response; if the Arisen continues in the same direction, they will go over the drop. Pressing in the back direction immediately once falling usually causes the Arisen to grab onto the ledge and dangle. This dangling allows fall height to be reduced and often turns a damaging fall into a safe one. Vocation and build effects Stamina use Striders are unique in having greatly reduced stamina use when climbing - consumption is reduced by one third compared to all other vocations, giving climbing time of half as much again. They also gain an increase in attack power compared to other dagger users when climbing giant monsters, but only against the largest of foes such as Drakes or the Ur-Dragon, not lesser ones like Cyclops or Oxen. Encumbrance plays a major role in stamina drain whilst climbing - tripling tiredness from very light to very heavy encumbrance. Other factors such as Character Weight have no direct effect on climbing stamina consumption. Climbing speed In general all vocations climb at the same speed, except Striders who climb almost twice as fast. Character Weight and Character Height have no effect on movement when mounted on monsters. Unlike walking and jogging and running, Encumbrance has no effect on climbing speed. The Assassin skill Wind Harness will also boost climbing speed, as well as all other actions. Augments and equipment * Dexterity improves climb speed on environmental objects like rocks, (but not ladders), and does not improve the speed of climbing on creatures. *Arm-Strength reduces stamina use when climbing. *Adhesion improves grip whilst climbing, reducing the effect of monsters flailing. *Opportunism increases attack strength whilst climbing. *Gloves of Might improve climbing speed. Monster behaviour Climbing on monsters sometimes affects their behaviour - many large creatures will attempt to throw off or grab anything they detect crawling over them. These counters can be divided into 'grabs', that usually allow them to attack the climber; 'shakes', that interrupt a climber; and more violent moves that interrupt as well as rapidly depleting stamina, or knocking the climber off. There are a few additional climbing techniques that give the Arisen and allies an advantage in battle - these include : weighting down a Griffin with several allies to ground it; grabbing a stampeding Ogre to throw it off balance, and a similar move for Cyclops involving grabbing it on the leg to cause it to hop, and then fall over. Stamina restoratives can be used whilst climbing. When climbing enraged monsters it is advisable to keep the stamina level high enough to compensate for sudden violent motions that will exhaust stamina. Attacks Additionally both Griffin and Cockatrice's 'flailing flight' are so violent to prevent climbers from attacking almost completely. Golems and Cyclops both may swing an arm to knock (or throw) off a climber, and the Golem's transition to "energizer" mode also throws off climbers. Monster motions may sometimes knock off a climber through collision on walls and pillars in the environment - in some cases the climber may simply be 'budged' to another location on the creature. Notes Monster climbing *Melee attacks whilst climbing gain a +50% damage modifier. (see also Skill multiplier data) However this only applies when attacking the most dangerous of foes : **These include the Ur-Dragon, Drakes, and the Gazer **Creatures that do not give a climbing damage boost included Cyclops, Ogres, or Oxen. **Striders gain an additional increase in damage whilst climbing of around 50% under the same conditions. *Oxen, all Dragonkin, Ogres, all Cyclopes, Cockatrices, Griffins, Hydra, Evil Eyes, the Gazer, Golems, Chimeras, all Giant Saurians, Skeleton Brutes, Eliminators, Garm, Poisoned Undead, and Living Armor can all be climbed. *Depending on the position on the creature, monster climbing uses "tank controls" - that is: forward/backward, and rotate left/right or "strafe controls" - that is: forward/backward, and shuffle left/right. **The movement also depends on the view - so if the creature turns 180° the controller input may need to be inverted too, or the Arisen will climb back where they came. *Very rarely a climber on the Ur-Dragon may find themselves propelled into the Everfall entrance platform in battle (usually unreachable) - in this case the Dragon will fly off prematurely. Environmental climbing *Crates and Barrels can be scaled with a jump. *Frigor based spells create a temporary climbable spire of ice. *Some objects can be climbed, such as the Hanging Bodies found in some locations on Bitterblack Isle. *When dangling from an object, press "down" to drop, and "forward" to climb up. See also *Grappling *Carrying Category:Concepts